Fake PhD Blog

The person that runs this blog and makes it his or her business to bravely out people as an anonymous blogger has a few issues. The person confuses unaccredited with fake (amateur mistake). I am not impressed with Trinity Seminary Indiana but would not call it fake. Beyond that the person outs a holder of a Union Institute PhD as having a fake doctorate. Think what you will of Union, it is accredited by a recognized accrediting agency.People Who Have Fake Doctorates

If you are making it your business to out people, perhaps you should make it your business to know what you are talking about.

 

oh come on, that's good stuff.

 

From my personal experience with unaccredited religious schools, especially those offering doctorates, unaccredited means fake more often than not. A school may have religious exemption, allowing it to operate legally. There may also be claims that degrees from the school enjoy a certain level of utility in the real world. After all, even Gilligan's Island had it's very own resident academic in the "Professor."

 

It's one of the reasons I don't particularly like "call out" blogs. Unqualified people offering uneducated opinions that can potentially harm others with zero consequences or accountability.

That's a pretty dangerous combination.

We have all gone down the religious doctorate path before. But the fact is, it's a pretty simple proposition for an employer to determine that a degree comes from an unaccredited school. And, ultimately, it's up to them of they are OK with that.

But people tend to get lazy when it comes to research. And if a blogpost appears on the first page of your Google results "outing" you as a fake then that's going to probably be as far as many people are willing to look. And if the degree they are crapping on just happens to be accredited that's all the more harmful.

It's bad enough when I hear colleagues say things like "ITT Tech and University of Phoenix are unaccredited."

 

I posted the following on the thread about the guy with a Union doctorate:

In what fashion is a doctorate from Union Institute and University illegitimate? The school is accredited by its regional accreditor.

The school's name changed twice. First, it was the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities, which was actually a consortium of accredited colleges and universities who banded together in order to, among other things, create an alternative PhD program. The school evolved into a free-standing institution and was renamed The Union Institute. Finally, when it acquired Vermont College, it was re-named (slightly) to Union Institute and University.

Getting your information from a poorly researched secondary source is pretty awful and unreliable research. For example, the part of the article cited notes the "American Psychiatric Association," which is wrong. The accreditor in question is the very well-known American Psychological Association (APA). The APA not only accredits some psychology programs, it sets a commonly used standard for formatting academic papers. The poster who quoted the article should have noted the mistake or, better yet, not used that article. (By the way, the APA has accredited only one distance learning psychology doctoral program, the one at Fielding Graduate University. Many psychology programs operate at accredited schools that are not accredited by the APA. Oh, and Fielding underwent a name change some years ago, so I guess they're not legitimate, either? Please.)

As for the graduate's desire to withhold his work, it can happen for many reasons, often related to copyright. Right after I graduated with my first doctorate (a PhD at Union), my dissertation was downloaded 66 times using just one purchased license, one that a guy distributed to a bunch of others. So I suspended electronic sales--the paper version was still available. I resumed electronic sales at a later date (and now I make it available for free on my website).

Yep, I did a PhD at Union--concentrating in Higher Education and specializing in Nontraditional Higher Education. I know what I'm talking about regarding Union from both scholarly and experiential perspectives. From a comparative perspective, too, since I also hold a Doctor of Social Science from the University of Leicester.

This thread has the potential to do some good, but like a loaded gun, it can cause harm in the wrong hands. You should know what you're talking about before trying to slam people for their credentials. Sure, there are a lot of scammers out there, and some of them are outed right here. But you've also erred by calling out a person who, in fact, has a PhD from a properly accredited university. Shame on you.

 

I think this was discussed before, many people get PhDs from religious schools and join a church as a reverend and this gives them the right to provide "pastoral counseling".
link
Retired

As long as they provide "religious services", the are not committing any crime. The use of the title "Dr" is not regulated in all the provinces in Canada. In Quebec, you cannot call yourself "Dr" even with a PhD as this is a reserved title for health care practitioners. However, I don't know the case of BC.

Technically, "Dr Brick" is not violating any law as he has the right to practice his religion and uses a title that was granted to him by his church. Unless, the use of the title "Dr" is reserved in BC, he is technically offering legit services with a legit unaccredited doctorate.

In Ontario, counseling and psychotherapy services have been recently regulated. In order to bypass the law, few "therapists" have joined the "Esoteric Seminar" and bought $600 dlls PhDs so they can sell themselves as "Pastoral Counselors".

Interfaith Ministry of Canada, Spiritual Guidance

The use of the title "Dr" is not regulated in Ontario so a PhD from Esoteric Seminary can sell him self as "Dr John Doe PhD Pastoral Counselor"

 

That's not what I'm finding, but I could be mistaken. What I'm finding is that you can use the title as long as you don't give the impression you're a healthcare provider. But perhaps I am mistaken.

 

Your response was eloquent Rich. It has yet to show up on PhD Scammers blog. This could mean he is busy or does not yet know how to respond so is not posting it. In my experience people like that tend to have difficulty admitting errors (thin skinned, insecure, etc).

Ideally, the person would say, "Oops, my bad". Instead, the person may carry on without appeal to facts or reality about Union Institute. The unfortunate part is that he is anonymously impugning the integrity of some guy with an accredited PhD.

 

That is my impression also. Every instructor I had in my MBA program referred to themselves as Dr. This also applies to my PhD program.

I work for a German owned company, and the execs on the board have doctorates in engineering, business etc and they are to be referred to as Dr. XXXXX.

RFvalve: Are you stating that Dr. on the front of your name is Medical, and if someone with a Doctorate in Management, they should put their name and DM on the back ?

Just questioning to make sure it is done correctly.


Michael

 

The code for the use of the Dr title in Quebec below. In few words, you need to be a member of a professional association related to health, otherwise you would need to use the university title after your name (e.g. Rich Douglas Doctor of Social Science)

https://protecteurducitoyen.qc.ca/en/advice/useful-tips/is-your-doctor-a-doctor
" only physicians, dentists and veterinary surgeons are allowed to use the title of “Doctor” "

The varies from province to province, I could use a title like "RFValve Doctor of Metaphysical Psychology" with an unaccredited Doctorate from a religious school like Sedona but cannot call myself "DR RFVAlve"

 

To take it a step further, what do you use in your name trailer if you're a PhD in an academic discipline other than philosophy? Am I:

Rich Douglas, PhD,
Rich Douglas, Doctor of Philosphy, or
Rich Douglas, Doctor in Higher Education?

Just wondering.

Signed,

Rich Douglas, Doctor in Higher Education and Doctor in Social Sciences (Human Resource Development)

 

It is a bit absurd, really, the fellow who runs the blog probably spent a few hours setting up that expose of the "fake doctor" from Union, but could've spent a few minutes finding out that Union is accredited at exactly the same level as Harvard and Yale. Hope he cleans his blog up before he gets sued.

 

FTFaculty, interesting thought. I had not considered PhD Scammers first victim may have been the main target.

Unfortunately, I suspect it is unlikely that the blogger will be held accountable. Neither Dick McHugh or Union Institute can easily sue an anonymous blogger.

One thing is certain, whatever other issues Dr. Dick McHugh has, a fake doctorate is not one of them. His PhD is from a regionally accredited institution. And is as legitimate as it gets. PhD Scammer is either scamming himself or rather uniformed to be running the type of blog he or she is running. This not only impugns McHugh's integrity but Union Institute and its alumni.

Incidentally (FWIW), Bernie Sander's wife is a PhD graduate of Union and President of Burlington College.

 

I think it could be
Rich Douglas PhD(Higher Education) DSc(Social Sciences)

In Canada, degree letters are not regulated but only professional titles such as P.Eng, CPA, Dr, Psychologist, etc. In few words, nobody will go after you because you hold an unaccredited degree and use PhD, MSc, etc but you will be facing fines if you call your self engineer, psychologist, CPA, etc and you are not a member of a professional association in question.

There are plenty of people operating in Canada with unaccredited PhDs from places like Sedona, Esoterical Theology Seminar, etc but I don't think there is regulation against it. It is only when you use a professional title that you can get in trouble so for this reason the convenience title of "Spiritual counselor" instead of psychologist that some of the people use in the referred blog.

In some provinces, the general rule is that it is up to the employer to accept a foreign degree that includes unaccredited ones and there is nothing against using unaccredited credentials in a resume or a web site as long as I don't use any protected professional title.

In few words, there is no point in exposing "fake" PhDs in Canada as there is not much you can do about it.

 

I like the concept, but it seems like the majority of people outed have "degrees" in wacky stuff like Metaphysics and Hypnosis, which most rational people will realize is a scam, regardless of the issuing institution.

 

Agreed. Much ado about nothing, ignores the much bigger picture, and inaccurately flames a guy. Very amateurish.

 

It's worth something. Did not know that. Checked out the Wikipedia page, and alums evidently include two college presidents, multiple professors, a congressperson, a prime minister. Took about 15 seconds, wonder why Mr. Investigative Fake PhD Blogger couldn't have taken that amount of time?

 

Have observed that when someone says "Oops, my bad" with sincerity, they go about three steps up the integrity ladder in my eyes. I frequently act out of ignorance, impulsively and/or in a fit of pique and have to say those words. Worst thing in the world is just to ignore the body shots you're taking because of your ignorance or stupidity and soldier on. Makes you look not particularly clever.

 

I think calling this website a blog is charitable.

When I think of a blog I think of the well designed sites where I read about the first hand experiences of my favorite world travelers, chefs and others like that.

This is a poorly designed slander site. And the person clearly takes issue with hypnotists. Fine. I'm not especially a big fan of alternative medicines and non-healthcare roles that mimic healthcare. But if you pointed me to a place on this website that urged me to convert all of my paychecks into gold, bury it in my yard and begin stockpiling dried lentils I wouldn't be terribly surprised.

 

The problem is that there is a very thin line between wack stuff like Hypnosis and Psychology. Licensed psychologist practice Hipnotherapy, many unaccredited PhD holders profit from the ignorance of people that cannot differentiate between licensed psychologist and hypnotherapists, there are also mill associations that will grant you a certified hypnotherapist transpersonal psychologist certification that leads people to believe that you are a licensed psychologist.